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October 12, 2012

Is Rep. Paul Broun Fit to Serve in Congress?

We all understand that in a nation where the overwhelming majority of the population identifies themselves as Christian, we are going to end up with quite a few Christians in Congress. That is how politics works, especially when many Christian voters indicate that they would never seriously consider voting for someone who was not Christian. But every now and then, we have one of these Christian politicians say something so absurd, offensive, or just plain wrong that we have to ask whether we should be working harder to elect atheists to Congress.

All that stuff I was taught about evolution, embryology, the Big Bang theory, all that is lies straight from the pit of hell.

It doesn't seem like someone who believes this is qualified to be anywhere near that committee, does it? Well, Rep. Broun said something even more troubling that hasn't received nearly the same attention but probably should:

…as your congressman, I hold the holy Bible as being the major directions to me of how I vote in Washington, D.C., and I’ll continue to do that.

That's a problem. Assuming we'd like our representatives to represent all of us and not only Christians, it is a problem that he insists on making decisions on the basis of a Christian "holy" book. And assuming we'd like our lawmakers to be guided by reality rather than ancient superstition while they're working for us, that's a problem.